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Comment by kbenson | Hacker News Reader

> This is corporate politics by insurgent means

Do you mind explaining that? I'm not sure I follow. It's obvious that a lot of dirt is coming out, but it seems to all be sourced internally. Or are you referring to people with media connections pushing the stories for more exposure (which I don't know if is happening or not)? I don't think there needs to be an explanation for why there's a lot of stories beyond it hitting the tipping point for many employees, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.

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> Do you mind explaining that? I'm not sure I follow.

This is obviously highly speculative, but Uber is a really leaky ship right now. This could be solely coincidence, but I am positing that – potentially – someone who wants increased influence at, or to increase pressure on, Uber may see opportunity here. To that end, they might be spinning parts of the narrative through their press relationships.

In other words: never let a crisis go to waste...

Ah, okay. That's what I thought you might have been referring to, but the term "insurgent means" is unique enough and vague enough that it piqued my interest enough to make sure. :)

Well, it's not business-as-usual, that's for sure.

I think it's just as likely that the people with grievances to air are far more likely to be listened to once an initial scandal breaks. As soon as the first tale hit the mainstream news, every editor and reporter suddenly had a reason to publish an otherwise ignorable story.

Top execs leaving is more easily explained. This is the time if you have skeletons in your closet, assuming the internal investigation is real, before your dirty laundry is aired in the national news. And if you see this as Uber's death knell better to bail before it tarnishes your own rep to have worked there.

> And if you see this as Uber's death knell better to bail before it tarnishes your own rep to have worked there.

Even if it's not Uber's death knell, as top exec it's probably better to bail now.

You can take your "I ran X at Uber" managerial propaganda and cash in on that for a better position. An Uber IPO probably isn't going to be life-changing amounts of money anymore for these levels of people even with the sweet deals that the hoi polloi would never get, so time to move on.

> I think it's just as likely that the people with grievances to air are far more likely to be listened to once an initial scandal breaks.

I think both things can be true at once.

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